Research Guides

Research Guides each of which is designed to help you find the most useful resources relevant to your department. It contains useful information and details of recommended resources to support your studies

If you don’t know what to use or where to search to find necessary information for your research, try this guide.

Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines

Introduction

1. What is a peer-reviewed journal? [1]

Peer-reviewed journals:

  • Are a collection of scholarly articles.
  • Use scholarly or technical language
  • Include full citations for sources
  • Are often refereed or peer-reviewed
  • Are published regularly throughout the year.
  • Have Volume(Vol.) and Issue Number(No.)

2. What is a journal article[2]

Journal articles:

  • Are written by and for faculty, researchers or scholars.
  • are shorter than books and written about very specific topics.
  • are reviewed by an editor and other specialists before being accepted for publication.

3. Types of journal article[3]

Most articles published are one of the following types; Original Research, Review Articles, Short reports or Letters, Case Studies, Methodologies. Further Information

 

[1] “Popular vs. Scholarly tutorial,” University of Arizona Libraries, accessed April 12, 2019, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfcHL97twKA-hLmw-CWCa6b4vAYxOFAxo58iA_ZILyy5ihpgg/viewform.
[2] “What is a journal article?,” SFU Library, accessed April 12, 2019, https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/format-type/what-journal-article.
[3] “Types of journal articles,” Springer Nature, accessed July 11, 2019, https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/authorandreviewertutorials/writing-a-journal-manuscript/types-of-journal-articles/10285504.

What is 'Review Article'?

A review article provides an analysis of the state of research on a set of related research questions. Review articles often:

  • summarize key research findings;
  • reference must-read articles;
  • describe current areas of agreement as well as controversies and debates;
  • point out gaps in knowledge and unanswered questions;
  • suggest directions for future research.

You can use a review article to get a better understanding of the existing research on a topic, to identify research questions you would like to explore, and to find relevant sources.

A review article’s bibliography often contains references to research articles that have made an impact on the field and advanced understanding of a research topic. Reading a review article can save you time and give you a more well-rounded and coherent understanding of your topic.

 

Shannon Caitlin, “Find and Use Review Articles,” UCLA Library, accessed April 12, 2019, https://uclalibrary.github.io/research-tips/review-articles/.

Bibliographic Information of Journal Articles

Evaluating Journals

Various methods have been developed to evaluate academic journals and create journal rankings.

  • SCImago Journal Ranking: is a weighted metric. The freely accessible web site contains rankings of more than 20,000 journals from the Scopus, one of the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, covering the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts & humanities.
  •  Research Performance Analysis★

Journal Impact Factor(JIF)

  • Impact Factor: available in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and other citation analysis tools serve as indicators of the impact, or influence of a journal.  Though controversial, Impact Factors, which rank journals within a discipline, are extensively used in the sciences.
  • The Journal Impact Factor identifies the frequency with which an average article from a journal is cited in a particular year. You can use this number to evaluate or compare a journal’s relative importance to others in the same field or see how frequently articles are cited to determine which journals may be better for your collection.

“Journal Citation Reports: Learn the Basics,” Clarivate Analytics, accessed April 12, 2019, http://clarivate.libguides.com/jcr/basics.

Top 20 Journals in Material Science(JCR)

Here is a list of top 20 journals in material science field, according to Impact Factor calculated by JCR 2018.

  • Material science field includes: Crystallography / Materials Science, Biomaterials / Materials Science, Ceramics / Materials Science, Characterization & Testing / Materials Science, Coatings & Films / Materials Science, Composites / Materials Science, Multidisciplinary / Materials Science, Paper & Wood / Materials Science, Textiles / Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
    Full Journal Title Category 2-Year
    Impact Factor
    Nature Reviews Materials MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 74.449
    Nature Energy MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 54.000
    NATURE MATERIALS MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 38.887
    Nature Nanotechnology MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 33.407
    ADVANCED MATERIALS MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 25.809
    Advanced Energy Materials MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 24.884
    Materials Today MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 24.372
    PROGRESS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 23.725
    MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING R-REPORTS MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 22.250
    INTERNATIONAL MATERIALS REVIEWS MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 21.086
    Annual Review of Materials Research MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 16.816
    Nano Today MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 16.582
    ACS Energy Letters MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 16.331
    Advanced Science MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 15.804
    ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 15.621
    Nano Energy MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 15.548
    Materials Horizons MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 14.356
    ACS Nano MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 13.903
    NANO LETTERS MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 12.279
    Small MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 10.856

Open Access Journals

Off Campus Access

This is a service made to allow off-campus access to e-Journals used in the UNIST campus. You can use it after logging in;

ID: UNIST Portal ID
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